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The Easiest Homemade Hydroponics System
from: Jason Willkomm Not every type of hydroponics system lends itself well to
homemade design. For systems that use drip or spray heads, you
have many costly items to purchase before you can produce a
properly working system. Usually, you end up learning a lot from
your first failed attemp if you choose to build your own drip
system or aeroponics system. There is one easy and relatively
inexpensive homemade hydroponics system I have found. It is the
homemade ebb and flow.
For a homemade hydroponics ebb and flow system, you will need
two cheap plastic storage totes, an aquarium air pump, an
aquarium water pump, a timer, a set of flood and drain fittings,
and a short length of plastic tubing. If you are not sure what
flood and drain fittings are, go to Google, click on "images",
and do a quick search for "flood and drain fittings".
First, one tote will be your nutrient reservoir. Pick a dark
color tote to keep light out of the nutrient solution...this
will help prevent the growth of algae. The air pump should go to
a couple of air stones, which will be kept bubbling in the
nutrient reservoir. The water pump goes here as well. Your water
pump should be able to move at least 100 gallons/hour at a
height of 3 feet. The pump should cost you about 30 dollars.
The other tote will go on top of the nutrient reservoir and hold
the plant containers. Plant containers should be filled with
expanded clay pellets or something equal, like lecca stone or
lava chips. Somewhere in the bottom of this container (out of
the way of the plants) you will drill two 3/4 inch holes and
install the flood and drain fitting in one, and the overflow
fitting in the other.
Finish it off by running a short piece of tubing from the water
pump to the flood and drain fitting (which is the shorter of the
two).
All you have left to do is plug the water pump into the timer,
set your timer for your flood and drain cycle, and fill the
nutrient reservoir with ten gallons of solution. Flood your
plant container for a 1/2 hour 4 times a day while the lights
are on .
When the pump kicks on, the top container will fill with water
(but never higher than the overflow). It takes a while for the
clay pellets to really absorb the nutrient solution. When the
pump kicks off, the nutrient solution will drain back down the
shorter fitting, leaving the plant roots and the clay pellets
wet with nutrient solution .
The flood and drain system is the homemade hydroponics system I
use most often. The function of the system is simple. The
results are consistently very good. The system is so easy to put
together.
Before you get started...your systme is only one piece of the
indoor gardening puzzle. You must have control over the
environment you place your garden into, and this environment
must be to the plants liking. In addition, you will have a much
better chance at success once you learn the exact nutrient
requirements (and therefore the exact feeding) of your plants at
every stage of their development. In order to meet these feeding
requirements, you must learn how to properly maintain nutrient
sollution in a reservoir. Learn these things and you are sure to
have a hydro-greenthumb.
For more info on hydroponics growing systems, check out
http://www.jasons-indoor-guide-to-organic-and-hydroponics-gardeni
ng.com/hydroponics-growing-systems.html
To learn how to maintain your nutrient solution, check out
http://www.jasons-indoor-guide-to-organic-and-hydroponics-gardeni
ng.com/how-to-grow-hydro.html
About the author:
Hi, my name is Jason. I have ten years of experience growing
indoors under lights. No less than two of those years I was
using hydroponics methods. It is my goal to help improve every
organic and hydroponic gardeners results through accurate, easy
to understand information.
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